Storm dumps hail across N. Texas

April 4, 2008 4:30:56 AM PDT

DALLAS, TX --

What a meteorologist called a supercell thunderstorm passed across North Texas early Friday morning, damaging homes with strong winds and hail the size of softballs. "It's April in Texas, basically," National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Shoemaker said. "We've got warm, moist air coming up from the south and cold, dense air coming down from the north. It's like oil and water -- they don't mix."

A Denton County family woke up early Friday when strong winds blew in the windows of their upstairs bedrooms and tore part of their roof off their home. Jill Delaney of Denton told Dallas TV station WFAA that the back half of her home's roof ended up in her family's front yard.

"It was this horrible popping sound, a real panic situation," Delaney told The Associated Press. "The corner of our house is bent like a tin can. It was just crushed."

Delaney said her 5-year-old daughter climbed into bed with her, minutes before the wind shattered a window above the bed where the girl had been sleeping. About half a dozen large trees in the family's yard were felled by the wind, Delaney said.

Shoemaker said the system is "a pretty good storm" that had produced winds as high as 50 miles per hour.

In Wise County, emergency dispatchers received two reports of damaged homes. A Wise County emergency dispatcher said one home had windows shattered because of hail and the other had its windows blow in by straight-line winds.

The dispatcher said there was hail the size of baseballs out at Decatur Airport and softball-sized hail at the sheriff's department.